The Palace gets 3-minute standing ovation at Venice Film Festival

Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski’s film The Palace received a 3-minute-long standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday night. Polanski directed the black comedy from a screenplay he wrote alongside Jerzy Skolimowski and Ewa Piaskowska. The Palace takes place during New Year’s Eve in 1999, when a dinner party at Switzerland’s Gstaad Palace hotel takes an unexpected turn.

The cast includes Oliver Masucci, Fanny Ardant, John Cleese, Bronwyn James, Joaquim de Almeida, Luca Barbareschi, Milan Peschel, Fortunato Cerlino, Mickey Rourke, Alexander Petrov, Viktor Dobronravov Irina Kastrinidis, Olga Kent, Naike Anna Silipo, Matthew T. Reynolds, Teco Celio, Marina Strakhova, Michelle Shapa, Danylo Kotov and Davide Gagliardi. Before the film’s premiere The Palace’s set designer Tonino Zera received Venice’s Campari Passion for Film prize from artistic director Alberto Barbera. Polanski has a history at Venice, having premiered his film Carnage, which starred Kate Winslet and Jodie Foster, at the festival in 2011.